Twenty-four Hours
by Kairikiani
Summary: Twenty-four hours in a day, and nothing happens. (Shino x Tenten, with unrequited Shino x Hinata, Tenten x Neji, and Tenten x Lee)


Author's Note: I was playing around with the whole 20 Truths style and turned out this Shino x Tenten fic...which is odd because there are twenty-four excerpts and I'm fairly sure none of them are canon. Oh well.

Critiques/comments/etc. are always appreciated. I don't know if it's possible for writers to respond to reviews on this website, but any and all commenters get virtual cookies. Or cake, if that's your type of thing. Anyway, enjoy the fic!

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8 PM

Tenten is an unusually well-behaved child. She never argues or cries or even fidgets. She simply does whatever the adults ask her to, then leaves to read about famous kunoichi or go exploring the woods by herself. Her landlord and her teachers are so relieved to have an orphan who DOESN'T act out for attention that not a single one of them finds her behavior strange.

8 AM

Nobody is surprised to see the Aburame heir spending his recesses by himself. With his odd speech patterns and body full of bugs, few children would want to play with him. It would, however, surprise many adults to learn that Shino's isolation is entirely voluntarily. He believes bugs are much more sophisticated company than children.

7 AM

Tenten has many smiles. Small ones, wide ones, ones with teeth… The fake smile is the biggest, and Tenten finds herself wearing it the most.

7 PM

To most people, the Aburame are perpetually expressionless. But for those who would pay attention to the twitching of his eyebrows or the tension in his jaw, Shino's face would be an open book. Thankfully his hood takes care of that issue.

11 AM

Tenten falls in love with Neji because he is exactly the person she wants to be. He's strong. He's hard-working. Intelligent. Heck, he's even prettier than she is. But most of all, he's a completely unique person. Just fighting by his side makes her feel like she could be one day be special too.

11 PM

Shino loves Hinata because she makes him feel human. She smiles at him. She talks to him. Sometimes she's even brave enough to touch his hand. She makes him believe in people, and so he believes in her.

2 PM

Tenten knows weapons. Swords, kunais, maces – she can win a fight with any of them. But in a world where mercenaries can breathe fire, duels are almost unheard of. Still, if Tenten ever does get in a duel, she'll definitely win it.

2 AM

People who specialize in espionage get longer missions. Thus, they appear to have less experience than those with shorter but more frequent assignments. Their skills are meant to go unnoticed – that means they're doing their job right. So Shino should find it encouraging that no one's assigned him to any high rank missions yet. Really.

5 PM

Tenten asks lots of questions. Her friends think she's just complaining to fill up the silence, but she really wants to know. Why are most of Konoha's medics women? How come Academy doesn't teach kids sword fighting? And why is it that the higher ninjas go up in rank, the stranger they dress? Nobody ever has any answers for her.

5 AM

It is a widely held opinion that Shino thinks too much. He picks up on the most insignificant things and analyzes them to exhaustion. His teammates often tell him that he should just appreciate the world as it is. Shino explains that that is precisely what he is doing. They never understand.

3 PM

Temari is Tenten's rival. She just refuses to admit it. But that's all right – for better or for worse, Tenten is a persistent girl. If 100 kunai won't beat Temari, then Tenten will summon a thousand. If a thousand won't work, Tenten will summon a million. And if a million kunai won't work, well, Tenten's got a 300-pound morning glory just waiting to smash the smirk off of Temari's face.

3 AM

Kankuro doesn't want a rematch. He's explained to Shino time and again that as a diplomat, he can't go around fighting clan heirs. He regrets attacking Konoha and he regrets poisoning Shino and wasn't rescuing Kiba enough to prove he's sorry? But Shino's spent years breeding the perfect termite to devastate Kankuro's puppets. One way or another, he's going to use them.

6 AM

When Tenten falls for Lee, she thinks she's the smartest girl in the world. While all the other girls compete over so-called hotties, she'll go after the nicest, funniest, most romantic guy in Konoha. Sure, Lee may have a teensy crush on Sakura. But once Tenten lets Lee know she's available, he'll forget all about their pink-haired friend. Right?

6 PM

Shino has decided that when the time comes, he will let his father pick his bride. After all, arranged marriages have a much higher chance of success than ones where the partners picked each other. Why waste time developing a relationship with someone who may not even be compatible with his bloodline? It would be far better to sort out the technical issues, then worry about his emotions later.

9 PM

An apprenticeship with Tsunade. A talent for healing arts. A living family. Lee's love. Sakura has everything Tenten ever wanted and more. But even when Sakura complains, Tenten can't bring herself to hate her friend. Instead she just feels very tired and resolves to work harder tomorrow.

9 AM

Shino has to admit that Naruto is essentially a god. He has the power of a tailed beast under his command. He's inherited the strongest techniques of warriors from across the world. He's marked to be the next Hokage, and he has an almost-supernatural ability to befriend people. Between him and Shino, there's no question who Hinata would choose.

4 AM

It make sense that people would forget Tenten. She has average skills, average looks, average personality. Nothing about her really stands out. Still, it'd be nice if she weren't always everybody's second choice for missions.

4 PM

Every time his friends forget him, it boggles Shino's mind. He's the tallest person in the room. He's the heir of the Aburame clan. He's known them all since childhood. The only way their behavior makes sense is if they were ignoring him on purpose…but Shino's only willing to take logic so far.

1 PM

Tenten 's ideal guy is someone with Neji's intelligence and Lee's kindness. Someone with a sense of humor, but who could also sit still for more than five minutes. Someone she could have a real conversation with. But anybody like that probably has a girlfriend by now.

1 AM

Contrary to popular belief, Shino does not want a quiet wife. He wants someone who clanks her silverware at dinner and who mutters in her sleep. Someone whose footsteps cause the floor to creak and whose clothes rustle as she moves. Someone who can make his house feel full without even saying a word.

10 PM

Tenten doesn't care about bugs one way or another. She walks by rare beetles and swats mosquitoes off her arm without a second thought. But on a hot summer night, there's nothing she likes better than sitting on a rooftop and listening to the cicadas.

10 AM

Shino doesn't know much about weapons. With an army of chakra-eating bugs at his command, he's never needed to. He does, however, enjoy learning about tactics. He just wishes he had someone to teach him besides the stick figures in his textbooks.

12 AM

Tenten doesn't think Shino's as creepy as people say. Sure, he has weird hobbies and even weirder clothes. But really, what ninja in Konoha doesn't fit that description? Secretly Tenten suspects Shino is one of her saner friends. It's a pity they don't talk more.

12 PM

Shino doesn't talk to Tenten much. She's a formidable ninja, to be sure, and he admires the patience she shows her childish teammates. But they have different fighting specialties and different interests and different social circles. They barely have anything in common.


End file.
